Midnight’s Queen (Stroke of Midnight #3)

Chapter 51

Aleks was not surprised when he opened his hotel suite door and found Mrs. and Mr. Solveig waiting for him. Pissed, but not surprised. He’d had over twenty missed call notifications between last night and this morning.

“Where have you been?” Mrs. Solveig demanded.

He stared at the woman who’d once commanded his respect and his loyalty, despite how poorly she treated him. All the digs and disparagement. He’d given his whole adult life to the Solveigs, and for what? They’d never made him feel half as good about himself as Portia had.

“How did you get in here?” he countered.

She held up a keycard, grinning triumphantly. “The front desk let us in. We told them about your brain injury and how we were so worried about you and they were more than happy to help.”

How had he been so blind to her blatant disregard for others? To think that he’d felt bad for her when Dizzie had refused to meet her.

He closed the door to his suite and leaned against it, hands in his pockets. Did they even realize that he’d cut off their exit? Or didn’t they see him as a threat at all?

The silence grew, as did the tension. Aleks didn’t care. As he’d told Portia, he’d finish this assignment and then he was done. Even if their fight this morning had broken their relationship, as fragile and new as it was, he was done with the Solveigs, done with the Solveig Consortium.

“Where were you?” she demanded again.

“What do you want?” His tone carried all his frustration.

She lurched from the couch. “How dare you speak to me that way!”

Aleks just blinked at her.

Mrs. Solveig paced back and forth. Aleks smiled inwardly. Not responding was making her lose her cool. She stopped directly in front of him and tried another tack.

“It was you, wasn’t it, in the drone picture?” When Aleks didn’t respond, she continued anyway. “I understand, she’s a pretty girl. Not as pretty as my Dizzie, but I can see the appeal. The kind of girl you knulla . Not one you ruin your life over.” She looked at him with that sweet grandmotherly smile. “She’s poison, that one.”

He’d been raised to respect women and his elders. That was the only reason he didn’t respond when she said Portia was just the kind of girl you fucked. That didn’t mean he had to put up with her rudeness. “Get. Out.”

“Now, now. Let’s all be friends.” Mr. Solveig inserted himself into the conversation. He pulled his wife a few feet away from Aleks. “All she meant is that we understand why a young man like yourself would have a vacation—what’s the word—fling. We just want to protect you.”

Aleks counted to ten before responding. He would not screw up Portia and Dizzie’s plan for their father. He’d play his role and then leave the Solveigs and their contempt behind him. “Mrs. St. John has requested a meeting two days from now. She has designated me as the point of contact with the Solveig Consortium. I will provide further details as I receive them.”

Mrs. Solveig clasped her hands in front of her. “She wants to see us?” She turned to her husband. “She wants to see us! I told you we were getting through to her.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this immediately?” Mr. Solveig asked. “This is more important than you or that Tremaine girl.”

Aleks didn’t respond.

With a pinched look on her face, Mrs. Solveig asked, “Will her husband be there?”

Aleks nodded. “Yes.”

“Hmmph. That gives us two days to start the annulment paperwork. Come, Agnarr, we have much to do.”

The look she gave Aleks dripped with contempt, but at least she kept her tone civil. “Make sure you give us the details as soon as you have them, Mr. Lind. Now please, quit blocking the doorway.”

Aleks stepped out of the way, but he never turned his back to them. Never again.

“Goodbye,” he said, but neither bothered to reply.